The seal environment in a machine, such as, an off-highway truck, for example, can include high pressure, high speed, and high deflection between relatively movable components. A seal assembly of the kind employed for retaining lubricant within a sealed cavity and excluding foreign matter from the bearing surfaces between relatively moving parts disposed within the sealed cavity can comprise a face-type seal wherein sealing is accomplished by mating surfaces of relatively rotating seal parts of hard material.
In seals which employ two rings relatively rotating in face-to-face contact, the economical production of sealing surfaces which will endure and maintain a seal throughout many hours of severe service is highly desired. For example, the cost of the material from which the seal rings of such a seal assembly are made can be expensive. It would be advantageous to avoid using high-cost materials in the production of such seal rings while maintaining a comparable performance to those that use higher-priced stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,296 is entitled, “Corrosion Resistant Alloy.” The '296 patent is directed to a nickel-base, corrosion-resistant alloy consisting of the following in percentage ranges by weight: Ni (26-48%); Cr (30-34%); Mo (4-5.25%): Co (4-7.5%); Fe (to 25%); Mn (1-3.5%); Cu (2.5-8.0%); C (0.05-0.25%); Si (to 4.0%); and B (to 0.10%).
It will be appreciated that this background description has been created by the inventor to aid the reader, and is not to be taken as an indication that any of the indicated problems were themselves appreciated in the art. While the described principles can, in some aspects and embodiments, alleviate the problems inherent in other systems, it will be appreciated that the scope of the protected innovation is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability of any disclosed feature to solve any specific problem noted herein.